Beaufort National Cemetery commemorates Spirit of '45 Day

August 16, 2015 at 9:58 PM EST - Updated July 25 at 7:41 AM

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Today is National Spirit of '45 Day, 70 years ago World War 2 came to an end. Americans all across the country spent time commemorating the war and all the heroes who served in it, locally people gathered at Beaufort National Cemetery.

Folks gathered honor those who fought and died in WWII, one woman came to pay her respects to a hero who brightened her day every day.

Suzi Oliver is a friend of a WWII veteran, she told us of her friend, "Dwight was one of my patients that we recognized and we recently had a party for him up in the Shelter Cove veterans park, that was July 3rd and he passed away shortly thereafter."

Suzi Oliver was just one of many to visit this historic cemetery, she came with her fellow Patriot Guard Riders to reflect on an amazing man who served his country.

Oliver told us of her friends service, "Dwight was on Normandy on D-day, on an LST, LST 491 and he went in 4 times to bring back our soldiers."

Saving lives and putting himself in danger. We have no way to tell which one is Dwight Blakeslee but he was here touching the lives of people who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. 70 years after his service he is still on the minds of many.

Oliver elaborated, "and we miss him, we had quite a few people checking on him including his veteran volunteers, and everyone really misses his delightful personality."

His recent passing is hard to cope with but today he is remembered for one of his greatest achievements being a World War 2 veteran. Suzi told me what his second greatest achievement might have been saying, "one of his proudest moments was he and his wife put 30,000 miles on his bike riding across the east coast."

Now Mrs. And Mrs. Blakeslee are buried together, along with his daughter. All veterans in the navy. The cemetery director has encouraged everyone to participate in Spirit of '45 Day.

Beaufort National Cemetery Director Craig Arsell said, "It has been quite a collective collaboration here and it shows our commitment to advocacy respect and excellence, it has been very excellent here."